Category: Golf

The hosts were clear favourites at Oak Hill 30 years go, but Bernard Gallacher’s team came home with the cup

By That 1980s Sports Blog

Winning an away Ryder Cup is “one of the biggest accomplishments in golf,” to quote Rory McIlroy. Neither team has a great away record. USA have only won twice on their travels since Europe joined the event in 1979, their last away victory coming in 1993. Europe’s only win on American soil in the last 20 years came in Medinah, and we all know it took a miracle for that to happen.

Of Europe’s four away wins – in 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2012 – their shock victory at Oak Hill 30 years ago remains a personal favourite. Things were far from rosy for Bernard Gallacher’s team in 1995: the captain was bruised after two defeats; there were complaints about his team selection; one star player was ruled out with an injury; and a few others were out of form.

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• Two-time major winner records highest PGA Tour Champions hole score

• US golfer finds water seven times on par-5 12th at Sanford International

John Daly made it into the PGA Tour Champions record book Friday for the wrong reason. The two-time major champion took a 19 on the par-5 12th hole at the Sanford International.

Daly also broke his personal record by one shot, after he took an 18 on the par-5 sixth hole in the 1998 Bay Hill Invitational when he hit 3-wood into the water six straight times.

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• World No 2 edges out Lagergren at third extra hole

• ‘I’m so lucky I get to do this in front of these people’

Rory McIlroy savoured “a pretty cool year” after adding a second Irish Open title to his Masters win. The world No 2 completed the career grand slam with his triumph at Augusta in April, and on Sunday he added to that by winning his home open for the second time with a thrilling playoff victory against Joakim Lagergren.

McIlroy had to eagle the 72nd hole just to take it to a playoff after Lagergren’s own stunning eagle at the 16th. After the first two extra holes were tied in birdie fours, Lagergren found the water hazard third time around to allow McIlroy to win it with two putts.

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• 11 of 12 players who won in Rome will defend title in US

• ‘It doesn’t mean we are going to roll out the same pairings’

Luke Donald has warned the US team that it would be an error to anticipate “rinse and repeat” from Europe in the Ryder Cup this month despite ­confirming 11 of the 12 players who won in Rome two years ago will tee up at Bethpage.

Donald named his six wildcards on Monday, all of whom played in 2023. Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Åberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and Sepp Straka received the captain’s call. Rory McIlroy, Robert ­MacIntyre, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, ­Rasmus Højgaard and Tyrrell Hatton qualified automatically.

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• 16-year-old also hit ace at 2024 PNC Championship

• Woods has had impressive junior season so far

Charlie Woods carded his second recorded hole-in-one after firing an ace on Sunday during the third and final round of the Junior Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Starting the round on the back nine, Woods was even-par through 11 holes on Sunday before he covered the par-three third with one shot from 177 yards out at TPC Sawgrass.

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• World No 11 decides to stick with non-playing role

• ‘It broke my heart not to play. It really did’

Keegan Bradley hopes a selfless act can turn into US points after the Ryder Cup captain resisted strong temptation to combine his role with ­playing duties at Bethpage in September. His confirmation ended the prospect of a first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

The US turned to Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, ­Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young and Sam Burns to back up the six automatic qualifiers in an eagerly awaited announcement made by Bradley on Wednesday.

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World No 11 would be first playing captain since 1963 if he hands himself a wildcard in his announcement on Wednesday

Six players have qualified automatically to represent the US in New York next month: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau. Keegan Bradley will name his half‑dozen wildcards on Wednesday. These announcements are ordinarily mundane; this one will be far from that.

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One of the few universally popular male sports stars, the Briton’s first win in 164 PGA Tour attempts is perhaps golf’s brightest story of 2025

Some of us have always known that deep inside Tommy Fleetwood lurked a cold‑blooded winner. Back in the late 90s I was working at the golf magazine Fore! when the deputy editor, Simon Caney, returned to the office after being thrashed 6&5 by a tiny eight-year-old who had shown him no mercy. His name? Tommy Fleetwood. Now the rest of the world knows that killer instinct exists, too.

But Fleetwood’s FedEx Cup victory, his first in 164 events on the PGA Tour, also reinforced something else. Everyone loves Tommy. Right. Left. Maga. Liberal. Whatever. It doesn’t matter.

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• PGA Tour adds Miami Championship at Trump Doral

• First Tour event at Trump venue since 2016 split

• Event part of crowded spring with majors, big purses

The PGA Tour will return to Donald Trump’s Blue Monster course in Miami next spring, ending a decade-long absence from Trump-owned venues.

The Miami Championship, a $20m Signature Event scheduled for the first weekend in May 2026, will mark the 56th time the Tour has played at Trump National Doral but the first since 2016, the year Trump won his first US presidential election. That year, the WGC-Cadillac Championship was pulled from the resort and relocated to Mexico City after Cadillac ended its sponsorship.

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• MacIntyre never recovers after bogeys on first two holes

• Scheffler has five PGA titles for second year in a row

Bob MacIntyre blew a four-shot lead in the final round as the world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, produced a moment of magic to clinch victory at the BMW Championship in Maryland. MacIntyre’s big overnight advantage was whittled to a single stroke after he started Sunday with two bogeys and, despite a gallant effort, he could do nothing to quell the American’s momentum.

Back within touching distance with two to play, MacIntyre watched as Scheffler nailed a remarkable chip from the rough to in effect confirm his victory on the penultimate hole. It was hard to take for MacIntyre, who had produced his own memorable moment on the final hole on Saturday when he sunk a 41ft putt to retain his significant advantage.

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Captain Luke Donald could be able to keep changes from victorious 2023 team to an absolute minimum at Bethpage

If continuity is key to Ryder Cup success, even the phlegmatic Luke Donald must be doing cartwheels. This also applies to those who believe the occasional away win is necessary if the event is to remain within the realms of serious sporting contest. The European class of 2025 is now very close to replicating the one that won in Rome in 2023, but with one quirk; Rasmus Højgaard replacing his twin brother, Nicolai. What the United States would give for such a settled scenario.

Should Donald be so minded, he can keep change to an absolute minimum. Recreating a winning environment becomes so much easier when the characters involved are the same. When Europe slumped to comprehensive defeat at Whistling Straits four years ago, seven of the 12-man team were sampling an American Ryder Cup for the first time. At Hazeltine, in 2016, half of Darren Clarke’s European contingent were debutants. The US again won with ease.

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